Making your LinkedIn headhunter-friendly

August 18, 2012 at 9:33 pm · Filed under cats, free advice, headhunters, linkedin, social media, tips

A friend asked for some tips on making his LinkedIn a little more headhunter-friendly. If your LinkedIn profile’s already complete – that is, you have your resume up, you have recommendations, you’ve listed your skills and you have OF COURSE changed your “interested in” options to include “career opportunities” – then you may need just a few tweaks to add a little headhunter catnip to your profile.

aim for the magic number

Get your connections up to 500. It’s the magic number that propels you upward in searches. (Under 500 connections? You’re probably only appearing in about 3% of searches)

be a joiner

Join groups, and if you’ve already had a headhunter approach you, make sure you check out the groups they’re following. If groups annoy you, turn down their volume by adjusting your email settings. But join groups.

leave a trail of breadcrumbs

While you’re searching for new connections in your quest to hit 500+, change your privacy settings so that your name and occupation are displayed when you spend time on other people’s profiles. You want everyone to know who you are and what you’re interested in so that they can follow you back to your amazing profile.

change your keywords

Headhunters are finding you through searches, so make it easy for them by expanding the keywords you use in your Summary, Experience and Skills. If you have connections in your industry who you know were headhunted, go on their profiles and make sure you haven’t missed a keyword.

look like someone they’d want to meet

Consider your profile photo. I know, you’ve heard this before! But photos are hard, so maybe you need to hear this again. Make sure it’s a well lit, clear shot of your face. Casual is ok! Smiling is…fantastic! But avoid drinks/cleavage/poor lighting/blurriness/other people/your baby (seriously, your baby?)/weird looks/squinting/cartoons. Did I miss anything? No cats.

Let’s review: No cats. No bad lighting. No party shots. Look relaxed.
(…wait, is that a red solo cup? Is this cat drinking? This cat will never find a job on LinkedIn)

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